Community is > 140 + 240

I thought I had made up a new word

LOVATE

As in – I lovate the internet

Until the urban dictionary informed me it was already in use.

I lovate the internet

See, I was a third of the way through a 3-part blog when two things happened:

1 - I got fed up with parts of the internet

2 – I was unsure whether what I felt like saying needed to be read by anyone but me.  Some people blog really effectively… not sure I do.  And I am not bothered if my blog is not worthwhile.

So I may get back  to that train of thought, but I may not.

So why the angst? Why the lovate? And what’s with the title?

Simply put: genuine life-giving friendship and community cannot by its virtue happen in bursts of characters limited to 140 or 240… or even 380 for the astute.

Witty or quippy or provocative statements can be made.  But to be sure misunderstanding is much easier in those confines

Last March I took a month long fast from Facebook.  While I did I came across a wonderfully written blog that opined about how Facebook can quickly become a self-centered ego fest and agreed upon voyeurism.

But I love Facebook and Twitter and email for brief messages and links to humorous/amazing/music Youtube videos and – let’s face it – links to Lolcats.

  But I hate the starkness of the black and white – regardless of emoticons – that so often leads to reading between lines and making assumptions about motives and tone and emotion that may not be there at all.

Millennia ago, Solomon wrote:

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,

   but only in expressing his own opinion.” (Proverbs 18:2)

How much truer in our day.

Real relationship can’t happen in a zeroes and ones format.

Real relationship happens face to face, eye to eye, heart to heart, life to life over meals and coffee and shared experience… and life.

Maybe you disagree.  

If that’s the case, let me know when you’re free for lunch and we can discuss it.

"Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel."  Proverbs 27:9